I was catching up on the news around the aviation world this
morning, and several stories involving new flight hazards are
popping up. These items have been in the news before, but
lately, more and more incidents have been reported. I’m talking
about two in particular; lasers pointed at airplanes, and
electronic interference with navigation equipment.

Somewhere near 3,000 incidents
involving high-powered, hand-held laser lights being flashed at
airplanes were reported in 2010. I don’t consider myself a
techno-geek, having fallen years behind when it comes to
electronics and the magic of things like i-Pods, cell phones,
hand-held Blackberries and the like. But I do know something
about these lasers. I know that a cat will get all the exercise
it needs chasing the little red dot around the house.

Lasers have advanced too. I doubt the
general public has yet achieved access to anything close to what
we see in science fiction movies where a beam is used to
instantly vaporize an enemy space ship. But, I really don’t
know that for sure either. What is fact is that the devices are
no bigger than a flashlight and are capable of sending an
intense beam of light a distance of many miles. An on-line
video demonstrated what it looks like on the receiving end from
the cockpit of an airplane, and it’s pretty incredible, and
dangerous. Apparently, if the pilot happens to be looking in
the general direction of the person with the laser light, and if
that person’s aim is good enough to hit the airplane with the
light beam, it could have serious consequences for the pilot’s
eyes, not to mention his ability to continue in control of his
aircraft.

It seems most of these laser
sightings happen around busy airports, and are directed at
low-flying aircraft as they approach to land or as they depart.
Presumably, the laser shooters are young people getting their
kicks by lighting up the sky with these fascinating light
sources. Unfortunately, they are likely unaware of the
consequences. The FBI has apparently been able to locate and
prosecute some of them.
http://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2009/la042309.htm

INTERFERENCE TO NAVIGATION INSTRUMENTS

Back in the days of crystal radios,
which fascinated kids like me, I can recall moving the little
antenna on a “rocket radio” up and down, tuning out the static
and listening to distant AM radio stations through the
earphone. A tiny alligator clip fastened to the bed spring
provided the ground-plane and many nights, I fell asleep with
that device turned on. In fact, it never went off. Where it
got its power is still a mystery to me to this day!

Surely I’m not the only one
curious about how things like ‘rocket radios’ work. Many
readers of this article will undoubtedly confess to
disassembling alarm clocks and transistor radios, just to see
what’s inside. But I gave that up years ago, allowing myself to
accept that certain things are indeed the result of some form of
magic. It is entirely beyond me that people are walking around
today with gadgets that can shop for best prices on items
they’re looking for, communicate via voice or text messages with
their friends, connect to the internet, check their stock
portfolios, play games …. the list goes on and on. In fact,
these devices do so much, that I’ll never even know what they’re
capable of. Most people who own them don’t even know.

Electronics are a mystery, so
complicated and have evolved so quickly that it’s not surprising
things can go wrong. Navigation equipment, GPS receivers, ILS
guidance systems, even laser-guided bombs, at some point will
experience interference or problems from unforeseen sources. It
has happened before and will continue. How can devices like
these be so advanced and be failsafe? I read a recent article
about how a faulty antenna on one GPS was able to totally
disable a similar GPS a short distance away. Factual or not,
the warnings about using a cell phone on commercial airliners
should be taken seriously. With all that’s going on inside the
devices and on the airwave bands, or whatever they’re officially
called these days, I wouldn’t take the chance of dialing out for
a pizza while on an airliner in the process of “auto-landing” on
an ILS in a snowstorm.

Gone are the days when you could take a wheel off a wagon and
discover the inner workings of the bearings. All that was easy
to understand and make sense of. For the average guy, most
technology today is impossible to figure out. It’s real magic
to me. I respect and depend on the GPS, the VOR, even the ADF,
but I also realize that they can be susceptible to failure. It
never hurts to have the old systems on board at the same time.
That means nothing more than a map and a compass along with some
common sense and situational awareness.